Sunday, May 11, 2014

Lost, however, doesn’t quite cover it. Maybe defenseless is a better word. The harder he swings, the slower his bat looks.

Manager Terry Francona, however, has not lost patience with him.

“We’ll have a lot of patience with him,” said Francona. “He’s our cleanup hitter. We’re not going to send him to Triple-A. He’s arguable our best hitter, our most productive hitter.

“We need to be patience because when he gets hot, he’ll get very hot. If you’re not patient, you miss out on that.”

Santana went into Saturday’s game hitting .139 (17-for-122) with four homers and 11 RBI. He started the season in a 3-for-58 skid before going 6-for-15 with three homers and eight RBI from April 28 through May 2. Since that brief hot streak, he’s 1-for-25.

“He’s had a period or two like this in his career,” said Francona. “It happens to everybody. When it comes at the start of the season, it’s a little more glaring.”

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I didn't follow the Indians off-season that closely, but I assumed the move to 3B was to get Yan Gomes into the lineup, and because Chisenhall wasn't panning out at 3B. Though it looks like Chisenhall is finally hitting. Who is the better 3B between the two of them? I'd have assumed Chisenhall, but I don't see a lot of Indians games. Does Santana at DH make more sense?

Chisenhall is probably the better third baseman defensively, but neither is all that great. Santana at DH makes some sense, but the problem is that they only have two catchers on the roster, so they'd be risking losing the DH if something happened to Gomes in mid-game. Santana at DH still might be the best solution going forward, but it seems like a lot of managers hate to DH their backup catcher.

If it's me, I have Carlos DH semi-permanently, get rid of the ridiculous eight-man bullpen, and call up Kottaras. I don't expect them to do that anytime soon, but that seems like the obvious solution.

One of the features of the modern DH era, as opposed to a decade ago, and something that is very important, and I bet everyone knows it, but no one talks about it is this:

If you want to stay on a MLB roster, the best thing you can do right now is develop the ability to be, in addition to what you really play, a reserve C, SS, or CF. Teams LOVE having a third C, SS or CF. And they are, of course, right, But there's no roster room any more. It's been taken up by your third LOOGY. You need a starter or solid benchwarmer who can cover you in one of those three spots, and you need him bad. Good career path if you're a AAAA player. - Brock Hanke